Is a Fetus a Person?
In the course of my travels, I lost track of local news and did not learn until recently that back home, in Canada, the government is going to vote on Motion 312 this week. It proposes to re-examine section 223 of Canada’s Criminal Code, which stipulates that a child only becomes a human being once he or she has fully proceeded from the womb. This is on the heels of a ruling by the Canadian Medical Association in August 2012 affirming the Criminal Code in this regard. I confess, I almost swallowed my tongue when I read that! Educated doctors who actually believe a baby is not human until it’s born? I glanced at my calendar. “No, it’s 2012, not 212.” Yet, it would seem that many Canadian doctors, and apparently most politicians, actually believe that a fetus is not a person until it is born. Then what is it? What is this kicking, thumb-sucking, smiling “thing” five minutes before it is born? The following was first written on July 12th, 2008 in attempt to answer this most pressing question of our times…
IN response to The Hard Truth – Part V, a Canadian journalist from a national newspaper responded with this question:
If I understand you correctly, you place a great deal of moral emphasis on the capacity of the fetus to feel pain. My question to you is, does this mean abortion is entirely permissible if the fetus is anesthetized? It seems to me that either way you answer, it’s the ethical “personhood” of the fetus that is truly relevant, and its ability to feel pain tells us little if anything about it.
Read more… » http://www.markmallett.com/blog/2012/09/is-a-fetus-a-person/#more-725
